September 3, 2021
Dear Hill-Murray Community,
Hill-Murray was one of the few schools in the state and nation that stayed open for in-person instruction each day last year. We were able to accomplish this because of the entire community’s commitment to the health of our students and faculty.
As we maintain vigilance, H-M continues to implement a health and safety plan to mitigate the spread of all infectious diseases, including COVID-19. We are prudentially evaluating all public health recommendations and implementing those that will best serve our students, staff, and the entire community. While our situation is different today than one year ago, we continue to be committed to maintaining the health and safety of our school community and being flexible. We are taking an approach at Hill-Murray that includes a broad number of steps, and we will deploy numerous mitigation measures that we will continue to rely on again this year.
Hill-Murray Mitigation Strategies:
Student and staff daily self-screening
Staying home when sick or showing symptoms
Continued increased handwashing protocol and sanitizing
Face coverings encouraged
Installed bi-polar ionization air filtration to remove viruses and other pathogens
Increased facility cleaning procedures utilizing 3M technology
Limiting visitors or events as needed on campus based on the data
Physical distancing is encouraged when it does not disrupt the learning of the students
In conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Health and the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, we will be monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic closely. We will be promptly communicating any updates to this plan. The updated GREENPRINT reaffirms our commitment to bringing students safely in person to learn at Hill-Murray. Still, families must understand that requirements and expectations could be changed and updated each day depending on the data and daily illness review.
In addition, the CDC announced this week that they are prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of September 20, and starting 8 months after an individual’s second dose and emphasizing the importance of vaccination. The CDC stated, “We also want to emphasize the ongoing urgency of vaccinating the unvaccinated in the U.S. and around the world.
Nearly all the cases of severe disease, hospitalization, and death continue to occur among those not yet vaccinated at all. We will continue to ramp up efforts to increase vaccinations here at home and to ensure people have accurate information about vaccines from trusted sources.”
Our student and faculty population besides those under 12 years of age, have all had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and we will continue to monitor these percentages as well.
Melissa Dan
President | Hill-Murray School
